This is what $12,000 looks like.It's a three-month supply of one of my medications.
Three hundred sixty pills.
$33.33 per pill, three (soon to be four) pills per day.
These three bottles are worth
a new car,
or
a round-the-world cruise and then some,
or
10 months' rent on a small apartment with roommate(s) in Manhattan,
or
25 percent of what many people would consider a decent salary,
or
nearly 2 pounds of gold,
or
a bunch of other stuff I don't have the patience to list.
Elsewhere around the world, these three bottles represent more wealth than an entire family can ever hope to amass in a lifetime, and probably several lifetimes.
Complaining is easy when you've got wealth practically pouring out of your ears.
9 comments:
Hi Greensleeves,
Yes, I take a lot for granted.
I should've added that, thanks to my health insurance, I pay $20 per bottle.
Which raises another issue: What about all the people who don't have health insurance, whose life or death are decided by the stroke of some official's pen?
this is an astounding fact to consider. you've said it very well.
Hi Kim, g,
I truly feel sorry for those who have fallen through the cracks in our health-care system. Yes, g, drug prices help fuel the cost of research. But, on the other hand, if we're talking about a rare illness that affects relatively few, many drug companies have already concluded that such research isn't profitable.
In effect, these companies can tell you what a human life is worth, give or take a couple of bucks.
And you have the wealth of each day's laughs and breaths.
I am glad you have the means to take good care of you.
Hi LB,
Thank God for my health insurance.
Yes, Anu.
Wow! It is amazing what medicine costs these days! I am one of the unfortunate ones who doesn't have insurance. Thank God that I am relatively well! My children are covered under a federal program, so no worries...it makes you reconsider your gripes...
Hi kimya,
I understand your situation. It seems to me that here in the richest country on Earth, some of the billions we spend outside our borders should be used to provide for our own problems here.
That this isn't the case is criminal, in my view.
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